Mechanism to change firmware in a high availability single processor system

ABSTRACT

A “high availability” system comprises multiple switches under the control of a control processor (“CP”). The firmware executing on the processor can be changed when desired. Consistent with the high availability nature of the system (i.e., minimal down time), a single CP system implements a firmware change by loading new firmware onto the system, saving state information pertaining to the old firmware, preventing the old firmware from communicating with the switches, bringing the new firmware to an active state and applying the saved state information to the new firmware.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to high availability computernetworks. More particularly, the invention relates to changing firmwarein a high availability, single processor system.

2. Background Information

Initially, computers were most typically used in a standalone manner. Itis now commonplace for computers and other types of computer-related andelectronic devices to communicate with each other over a network. Theability for computers to communicate with one another has lead to thecreation of networks ranging from small networks comprising two or threecomputers to vast networks comprising hundreds or even thousands ofcomputers. Networks can be set up to provide a wide assortment ofcapabilities. For example, networks of computers may permit eachcomputer to share a centralized mass storage device or printer. Further,networks enable electronic mail and numerous other types of services.Generally, a network's infrastructure comprises switches, routers, hubsand the like to coordinate the effective and efficient transfer of dataand commands from one point on the network to another.

Networks often comprise a “fabric” of interconnected switches which aredevices that route data packets from source ports to destination ports.The switches in a network typically are relatively complex devices thatinclude microprocessors, memory, and related components and executefirmware stored in non-volatile memory such as read only memory (“ROM”).The switches typically have multiple ports which may be physicallyconnected to other switches or other devices such as servers, storagedevices, user consoles, and other types of I/O devices.

Switches may be fabricated in “blade” form comprising a circuit boardmated to a tray. The blade assembly then can be slid into a chassis sothat blind mating connectors on the blade engage corresponding socketsin the chassis. In one type of switch chassis embodiment, the chassis isable to accommodate multiple, generally identical, blades (e.g., eight).The number of blades used in the system can be scaled up or down asneeded. One or more control processors (“CPs”) may also be included inthe chassis in blade form. Each CP preferably includes one or moremicroprocessors, memory (both volatile and non-volatile), and connectsto the various switches in the chassis, firmware stored in non-volatilememory which is executed by the CP's microprocessor, etc.

In those systems in which two CPs are provided in a single chassis,typically, one CP is deemed the “active” CP and the other CP is in a“standby” mode of operation. The active CP is fully operational andinteractive with the various switches in the chassis, and switches andCPs in other chassis. The standby CP is generally identical to theactive CP (i.e., same hardware and same software loaded thereon), but isnon-operational. If the active CP fails or otherwise ceases to be fullyoperational for whatever reason, control may pass from the failed activeCP to the standby CP. This fail-over process involves the coordinationof a great deal of software state and hardware configuration informationand, accordingly, consumes a significant amount of time. As such, itwould be highly desirable to reduce the time required as much aspossible to fail over from the active CP to the standby CP. It is alsodesirable to minimize the disruption of service that may occur duringthe fail-over process.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The preferred embodiments of the present invention solve the problemsnoted above by a “high availability” system which comprises one or moreswitches (or other electronic devices) under the control of one or morecontrol processors (“CPs”). One of the CPs is deemed to be the “active”CP, while the other CP is kept in a “standby” mode. Each CP generallyhas the same software load including a fabric state synchronization(“FSS”) facility. The FSSs of each CP communicate with each other.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the stateinformation pertaining to the active “image” (i.e., the software servicerunning on the active CP) is continuously provided to a standby copy ofthe image (the “standby image”). The FSSs perform the function ofsynchronizing the standby image to the active image. The stateinformation generally includes configuration and operational dynamicallychanging parameters and other information regarding the active image. Bykeeping the standby image synchronized to the active image, the standbyimage can rapidly be transitioned to the active mode if the active imageexperiences a fault. Armed with the state of the previous active image,the standby image will continue operating where the previous activeimage left off. Some state updates may not be provided to the standbyimage before the active image fails. The software on the standby CPaccounts for this situation, and performs a consistency check when ittakes over to determine whether some updates may have been missed.

The fail-over process involves multiple stages of processing of variousexecutable components of the image. Some stages may depend on the priorexecution of other stages. In accordance with another aspect of theinvention, once it is determined that a fail-over to the standby imageis needed, the standby image pulls control away from the failed activeimage. The preferred fail-over process includes the use of a stagingtable which permits the standby image's FSS facility to efficientlyschedule the various stages of the fail-over process taking into accountthe inter-stage dependencies noted above.

In accordance with another preferred embodiment of the invention, astandby CP which becomes the active CP, re-issues all messages that thepreviously active CP had issued and which have not yet completed. Eachtransaction of messages through the network is assigned a transactionidentifier (“XID”) that uniquely distinguishes that transaction fromother transactions. In accordance with a preferred embodiment, the newlyactive CP uses a different range of XIDs than its predecessor CP. Byusing a different range of XID values, the newly active CP can determinewhether an incoming response message is responsive to a message thatoriginated from the previously active CP or the newly activated CP. Thecurrently active CP preferably ignores all response messages that do nothave an XID in the CP's XID range. This ensures proper and reliablemessaging in the network during a fail-over event.

In accordance with yet another embodiment of the invention, changing aCP's firmware may be desired to provide, for example, additionalfunctionality. It further may be desired to change firmware in a singleCP system. Consistent with the high availability nature of the presentsystem (i.e., minimal down time), a single CP system implements afirmware change by loading a reboot manager utility and registering theutility as a standby image with the FSS. Then, the currently activeimage is prompted to save its state to a file stored in non-volatilememory. Upon an optional reboot of the CP, the new firmware is broughtup as a standby image; the reboot manager is launched as an activeimage. A state restore then occurs in which the previously saved stateis provided to the standby image. Then, a fail-over is forced totransition the standby image (which contains the new firmware) to theactive mode. During the state save operation, the firmware preferablydoes not distinguish between communicating with its standby counterpartand communicating with the reboot manager. Likewise, during the staterestore phase, the firmware generally has no knowledge that it isreceiving the updates from the reboot manager, instead of receiving fromthe active counterpart.

These and other aspects and benefits of the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention will become apparent upon analyzing the drawings,detailed description and claims, which follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a detailed description of the preferred embodiments of theinvention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary switch fabric comprising a plurality ofswitches and end node devices;

FIG. 2 shows a chassis in which a plurality of switches and controlprocessors are mounted;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the switches and control processors ofFIG. 2 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment illustrating the synchronizationinteraction between a pair of control processors;

FIG. 5 illustrates a recovery process in which various softwarecomponents are recovered in stages and some stages of which may dependon other stages;

FIG. 6 illustrates a preferred embodiment of a staging table whichimplements the staged recovery process of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 shows a flow chart depicting how a fail-over image responds tooutstanding messages that originated from the previous controlling imageusing a unique range of exchange identifiers; and

FIG. 8 shows a flow chart showing how firmware can be changed in asingle control processor system.

NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claimsto refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, various companies may refer to a component andsub-components by different names. This document does not intend todistinguish between components that differ in name but not function. Inthe following discussion and in the claims, the terms “including” and“comprising” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should beinterpreted to mean “including, but not limited to . . . ”. Also, theterm “couple” or “couples” is intended to mean either a direct orindirect physical connection. Thus, if a first device couples to asecond device, that connection may be through a direct physicalconnection, or through an indirect physical connection via other devicesand connections. The term “state” or “state information” refers tovalues, variables, and other entities that are used for software and/orhardware to run. State information typically dynamically varies duringrun time and usually is more than just configuration information.

To the extent that any term is not specially defined in thisspecification, the intent is that the term is to be given its plain andordinary meaning.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to FIG. 1, a network 50 is shown in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the invention. As shown, the network 50comprises a plurality of inter-connected switches 52. One or more endnodes are also attached to various of the switches 52 and cancommunicate with each other via the fabric of switches. The end nodesmay include one or more storage devices 56, one or more server computers58, input/output (“I/O”) devices 60 (e.g., a console), and other desireddevices. Messages from one end node to another are routed through thefabric of switches 52 in a manner determined by routing tables that areloaded into each switch. The network 50 may be implemented in accordancewith the Fibre Channel standard, or other suitable type of well-known orcustom-designed network.

FIG. 2 shows one exemplary embodiment of a chassis 70 containing aplurality of switches 52. The chassis 70 shown in FIG. 2 includes thecapacity to accommodate eight switches 52 which are labeled SW0-SW7. Thechassis 70 preferably also accommodates one or more control processors(“CPs”) 72. Two CPs 72 are shown in FIG. 2 and are labeled as CP0 andCP1. In general, the CPs 72 control the operation of the switches 52.Although the system can operate with only one CP, two are preferred forredundancy. Although the preferred embodiment is described herein in thecontext of network switches, it should be understood that CPs can beused in conjunction with many other types of electronic devices.

As shown in FIG. 3 the CPs 72 couple to each of the switches 52 via oneor more busses 59. Each switch 52 can connect to other switches in thechassis 70, to switches in other chassis, and to end nodes via aplurality of ports 81. Each node on the switch can be configured to sendand/or receive messages. The connection 59 between the switches 52 andthe CPs 72 may be a bus separate from the ports 81 or one of the ports81 on each switch may be used to connect the switch to the CPs.Alternatively, each CP can connect to a group of switches SW0-SW3 viaone bus and another group of switches SW4-SW7 via a different bus. TheCPs 72 perform numerous management functions with regard to the switches52. An example of such a management function is to load a routing tableinto the memory 80 of each switch. The routing table specifies how aswitch is to route incoming messages received on an input port 81 to anoutput port 81. Thus, the routing table takes into account the fabrictopology the system architect has established for the network. FIG. 1represents one exemplary topology of how end nodes and switches can beconnected together and thus the routing tables would reflect thattopology. The CPs 72 generally configure each of the switches 52. Onceconfigured, the switches generally run autonomously meaning CPs 72 arenot needed simply for a switch to route messages between input andoutput ports. The CPs 72, however, may perform other managementfunctions as keeping statistics, static or dynamic route changes, namingor addressing configuration changes and processing network controlmessages.

Referring again to FIG. 3, each CP 72 preferably includes a centralprocessing unit (“CPU”) 84, volatile memory 86 and non-volatile memory92. Volatile memory 86 may comprise random access memory (“RAM”).Non-volatile memory 86 may comprise flash memory, a hard disk drive, orother types of non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory 92 includesvarious routines and files that are executed and used by CPU 84. Thoseroutines may include a fabric state synchronization (“FSS”) facility112, operating system kernel 96, application software 98, a rebootmanager 99, and a component description file 100. The volatile memory 86is used to temporarily store data in accordance with known techniques.The volatile memory 86 may contain an exchange identifier (“XID”) table88 and a staging table 90 as will be described below.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the systemof switches 52 and CPs 72 is implemented with “high availability”features. High availability generally refers to the system's capabilityto quickly recover from a fault with little, or no, down-time. Variousaspects of the high availability nature of the system will be describedbelow.

Fabric State Synchronization (“FSS”)

Referring still to FIG. 3, in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe invention, two CPs 72 are provided to control the associatedswitches 52. Preferably, only one CP 72 is needed to control theswitches, the other CP being used for redundancy purposes. Thus, if thecurrently active CP fails, control can pass to the backup CP (referredto herein as being in a “standby” mode). More than one standby CP can beprovided if desired. If a fail-over to the standby CP is required (forexample, due to a failure of the active CP), the fail-over preferablyoccurs as quickly as possible so as to minimize the amount of down time.To that end, state information associated with the active CP is providedperiodically to the standby CP thereby synchronizing the standby CP tothe active CP. By keeping the standby CP synchronized to the active CPduring run-time, the standby CP's transition to the active state isexpedited.

Various terminology relevant to the synchronization and failoverprocesses will now be introduced. This terminology should not be used tolimit the scope of this disclosure, but is merely being provided forsake of ease in understanding the principles discussed herein. Referenceis now made to FIG. 4 which shows two images-an active image 110A and astandby 110S. The “A” designation refers to “active” and the “S”designation refers to “standby.” Each image includes an FSS facility112A, 112S and executable routines in both user space and operatingsystem kernel space. For example, two components 114A/S and 116A/S areshown in the user space along with an administrator component 118A,118S. Other components may be included as well. The kernel spaceincludes one or more drivers 120A, 120S and a high availability manager(“HAM”) 122A, 122S. A transport 126 comprises a communication linkbetween the active FSS 112A and the standby FSS 112S.

A focus of the high availability nature of the present system is toprovide fault resilient instances of “services.” A service generallyrefers to a collection of related software that performs a predeterminedfunction. In this context, for example, the software supporting a switch52 could be considered a service, as would a storage virtualizationfacility running on a virtualization co-processor blade. A service maycomprise one or more service “components.” The components are generallyexecutable routines. A switch service, for example, may contain variousindividual components, including application level components and one ormore kernel level components such as switch and network drivers.

Each component typically has “state” information associated with it. Thestate information may include configuration and operational values ofthe software and hardware associated with the component. The state ofthe service generally comprises the aggregate of the states of thevarious components comprising the service.

A service “instance” generally refers to a single, fully-specified,configuration of a service. An instance comprises the state of the setof user-level applications and associated kernel state that represent aunique instance of the service. There may be multiple instances of aspecific service type running on a given CP 72. For example, two switchservice instances may run on a single CP. Multiple types of services mayalso run on a single computing platform. An example of this is a FibreChannel-to-iSCSI bridge service instance supporting an iSCSI-FibreChannel Bridge blade in the same chassis with four switch servicessupporting other Fibre Channel switches in the same chassis.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, multiple“copies” (also called “images”) of a single service instance may also beincluded. Each of these images is placed into one of two modes: Activeor Standby. At any single point in time, only one image of a serviceinstance is active. The active image is fully operational and is whatthe external logic sees as “the service.” Zero or more images of theservice instance may be in the standby mode. A standby image preferablyruns on a different CP than the CP on which the active image runs. Ifdesired, however, a standby image may run on the same CP as its activeimage counterpart. Further, more than one standby image can be includedas desired.

A service instance is identified by a service instance identifier, whichmay be an alphanumeric name or other type of identifier. All images(active and standby) of a specific service instance preferably have thesame name. Different instances instantiated on a given computingplatform have unique names. Active and standby images preferably occupyseparate namespaces, thereby allowing an active image and a standbyimage of a service instance to exist on the same CP at the same time.Service instance names are the basis for connections between images.That is, a standby image of service instance XYZ will connect to theactive image of service instance XYZ. Service instance names can takewhatever form is desired by the system architect. For example, the namesmay comprise two parts: a service name (an ASCII string) and theinstance name (another ASCII string) separated by a period (‘.’).

As noted above, a service “component” is an entity that performs somesubset of the actions of a service and maintains some set of staterelating to its function. A component may be a user-level process (i.e.,an application), a set of state in a multi-threaded application, akernel thread, or a related set of state information maintained by akernel component (e.g., by device drivers). In accordance with thepreferred embodiment of the invention, a service component is the basicelement involved in state synchronization. The FSS 112 facilities routestate synchronization messages from a component in an active image toits peer component (i.e., the component with the same name) in thecorresponding standby image(s).

A service component preferably is identified by the name of the serviceinstance of which it is a member and by a service component identifier,which also may be an alphanumeric name or other identifier. A servicecomponent name preferably comprises an arbitrary ASCII string. The onlyconstraint on the contents of a component name is that it be uniquewithin the service—that is, no two components should have the samecomponent name within a given service.

Referring still to FIG. 4, HAM 122 preferably is responsible fordeciding where (i.e., on which CP) active and standby service instanceimages are to be launched. Before launching the service instance images,the HAM 122 preferably initializes the FSS facilities 112 on the CP 72with the specifics of the service instances to be run on the CP. The HAM122 performs this action by creating a service which identifies theservice name and the names of all of the components comprising theservice. The HAM 122 then calls FSS 112 to create a service instanceimage identity for each service instance image (active or standby) to berun on the CP. This request preferably includes the name of the serviceinstance, the initial mode of the image (either active or standby) and,if the mode is standby, the network address identifier for the FSSservice where the active image is to be run. Creating the serviceinstance image is a configuration operation—it preferably does not causeprocesses to be launched or kernel state to be created (other thanwithin the FSS driver itself).

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, all imagesinitialize to the standby mode. Then, one of the images is selected totransition to the active mode. The other image(s) remain(s) in thestandby mode.

Once the service is created, it is the responsibility of the FSSsupporting a standby image (such as FSS 112S in FIG. 4) to connect tothe FSS supporting the active image. The active image listens for aconnection request from the standby image. When the HAM 122 creates astandby service instance image that references a separate CP, the FSS112S preferably establishes a connection to the image on the remote CP.If the remote CP does not answer, the FSS periodically will retry toestablish a connection to the image on the remote active CP. Theestablishment of this inter-FSS connection occurs when the FSS isconfigured and is independent of whether the actual service instanceimage has been launched.

A service instance image is considered to be initiated when its variousconstituent components and relevant kernel context are active. Referringstill to FIG. 4, when a service instance is initiated, each componentwithin the service “registers” with FSS 112. As part of the registrationprocess, the components identify themselves by service instance name andcomponent name. This registration establishes a messaging channel withFSS that allows control messages to be sent from FSS to the componentand for state synchronization messages to flow from the activecomponents and to the standby components. When all components of aservice instance image have registered with FSS, the image is considered“complete,” as noted above. The HAM 122 on each image is notified whenboth the active and standby images are complete. The HAM 122 for thestandby image 110S image preferably then initiates a synchronizationprocess by which the active image's component state information isprovided to the standby image. In accordance with the preferredembodiment, synchronization is performed between pairs of active/standbycomponents. The dashed lines between components in FIG. 4 indicate thissynchronization process. By obtaining the active image's state, thestandby image can quickly become the active image and pick up where theprevious active image left off in the event a fail-over is needed.

The HAM 122 on the standby image initiates state synchronization bysending a SYNC_START message to FSS 112S specifying the instance name.This message is forwarded to the FSS 112A of the active image and allcomponents of the active image consequently are sent a SYNC_STARTmessage. Upon receiving a SYNC_START message, an active component (e.g.,114A, 116A) preferably provides (“updates or “sends”) its current statein one or more state update messages it sends to its standby componentcounterpart. The first of such messages is marked SYNC_BEGIN indicatingto the receiving standby component that this and subsequent messagescomprise a “sync dump.” The standby component (e.g., 114S, 116S)generally responds to reception of a sync dump by replacing its currentview of the state of its active counterpart with the new state beingprovided to it by its counterpart component. The last message in thesync dump sequence is marked with SYNC_END. All intermediate messages inthe sequence represent changes in state and are applied incrementally tothe, standby component image state. These intermediate messages may beto add state information to the standby component, delete stateinformation or modify state information, although typically the updatemessages within a sync dump will simply add new information. Preferably,the active component will dump its state “atomically” by sending theentire dump sequence without allowing any changes to its state to occurbetween the sending of the SYNC_BEGIN and the SYNC_END messages.Preferably, the FSS service on the standby CP will store in its ownbuffer all messages in a dump sequence until the final SYNC_END messageis received, at which time all of the messages will be delivered to thestandby peer component. When the message marked SYNC_END is successfullydelivered to the standby component, that component is marked as“synchronized.” As noted above, when all components within an image aresynchronized, the state of the image is considered to be “synchronized”as well. It should be noted that the synchronized state is generallymeaningful only to the standby image because it is to that image that afail-over would occur. However, the state may be reported to the HAM122A on the active side as well.

Once the images are brought up and the active and standby images aresynchronized, the system operates in accordance with its normal,run-time functionality. During the course of operation, the stateassociated with each component may change. Another function performed bythe FSS facilities 112 during normal run-time is to provide updatedstate from the components in the active image to the correspondingcomponents in the standby image. As such, when an active componentexperiences a change in state, a state update message is sent to thecorresponding standby component. As noted above, the change in state mayinclude new information, a change to existing information, or thedeletion of old information. The new information may include processingstatus information, for example noting of the reception of an externalrequest for name server information followed by notice that the requesthad been fulfilled. In some cases, it will be advantageous for theactive component to know that an update has been reliably sent to thestandby CP before taking further action related to the information inthat update. Such an update is termed a “synchronous” update. Preferablythe active component may either “block” (stop further processing) untilan acknowledgment for a particular synchronous update has been received,or delay further processing related to individual synchronous updates,in which case the active component will be sent an acknowledgmentnotification message for each such synchronous update. As explainedpreviously, by keeping the standby components fully apprised of thecontinuing changes in the state of the active component, the standbyimage will be ready to fail-over at a moment's notice with little, ifany, disruption in services.

Some state updates may not be provided to the standby image before theactive image fails. The software on the standby CP accounts for thissituation, and performs a consistency check when it takes over todetermine whether some updates may have been missed.

Efficient Staged Failover

An active image may fail, thereby ceasing to be fully operational. Whenan active image has failed, control transitions to the standby image.This process is called a “fail-over.” In general, the system may bedesigned to cause a fail-over as a result of numerous types of failures.However, fail-overs preferably occur upon the occurrence of anon-recoverable active CP/image failure. Because of the nature of thefault experienced by the active image, the active image may be unable toinitiate the passing of control to the standby image. Instead, and inaccordance with the preferred embodiment, the standby image takescontrol from the active image. Accordingly, the HAM 122 on the standbyimage includes a mechanism to detect a failure in the active image. In apreferred embodiment of the invention, a multiplicity of failuredetection mechanisms will be used to ensure timely failover. Onemechanism unique to the FSS facilities is a TAKE_OVER message sent bythe active CP to the standby CP when the FSS facility itself is aware ofa failure requiring failover. Other such mechanisms may include supportin the hardware of the CPs to indicate one or more failure conditions onthe active CP, and a “heartbeat” protocol using messages sent betweenthe CPs at a regular interval to detect whether the other CP is stillfunctioning normally. One skilled in the art may easily adapt any of amultiplicity of well-known detection mechanisms to the purpose ofinitiating the fail-over function.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, when the HAM 122S on the standby image 110Sdetects, or is notified of, a failure of the active image, the HAM 122Ssends a TAKE_CONTROL message to the standby image. In response, the FSS112S also sends a GIVE_UP_CONTROL message to the active image in casethe active image is sufficiently functional to receive and correctlyinterpret such a message. The standby FSS 112S also changes its image'smode to “active” and sends all of the standby components a TAKE_CONTROLmessage. Each standby component then takes whatever action is requiredfor it to be come the active component using the state of its previousactive counterpart component as its starting point. This permits thestandby component to become the active component and resume where theprevious active component left off.

When a fail-over has occurred, the service instance that is now activeruns without a standby image (unless the system included more than onestandby image). Without a standby image, the now active image isvulnerable to a service outage in the event of another failure. However,a new standby image can be created, if desired, on the CP 72 that ranthe previously active image that failed. Also, the CP 72 with the failedimage can be replaced and a standby image created on the newly installedCP.

The following describes more detail regarding the fail-over process. Allcomponents originally are brought up to a standby mode as explainedabove. When a component is requested to become active, the componenttransitions through a “recovery” process which may include severalstages of processing. Referring now to FIG. 5, four exemplary componentsare shown with their associated stages. Component 1 includes threestages. Components 2 and 3 include two stages each and component 4includes four stages. The stages associated with each component areperformed in order (stage 1, then stage 2, then stage 3, etc.). Some ofthe stages, however, depend on stages associated with other components.For example, stage 2 of component 1 depends on component 2's stage 2.This means that stage 2 of component 1 should not run until stage 2 ofcomponent 2 completes. Similarly, stage 1 of component 3 depends on bothstage 2 of component 2 and stage 3 of component 1 meaning that bothcomponent 2's stage 2 and component 1's stage 3 should complete beforecomponent 3's stage 1 is permitted to start. Also, stage 3 of component4 depends on stage 2 of component 3.

The preferred embodiment of the invention includes an efficientmechanism to ensure the dependencies between stages in the recoveryprocess. To that end, a staging table is used. The staging tablepreferably is created and stored in each CP's volatile memory 86 asshown in FIG. 3 (staging table 90). The following describes how thestaging table 90 is created and used.

The staging table 90 is generated by the CP 72 during compile-time ofthe software that runs on the CP. The information used to generate thestaging table includes component identifiers, stage identifiers anddependency information. The dependency information may include theidentifier (e.g., name) of the stages on which the stage depends. Suchinformation may be stored in a text file on the CP's non-volatile memory92. Such a file is shown in FIG. 3 as component description file 100.

An exemplary embodiment of the staging table 90 is shown in FIG. 6. Asshown, the staging table includes a plurality of columns 150 (150 a-150h) and a plurality of rows 160. Each row 160 corresponds to a componentand includes that component's stages. Each column 150 generallycorresponds to a time slice in which any stage listed in that column canbe run. Each cell 152 in the table 90 includes a value. The value maycomprise a stage identifier or a value (e.g., a null value). FSS 112accesses the staging table 90 to schedule the stages of the variouscomponents. The number of columns provided in the table and theplacement of the null values are such that the inter-stage dependencyinformation is inherently built into the table and preferably computedat compile time.

Referring still to FIG. 6, FSS schedules the various stages of therecovery process by accessing the first column in the staging table(column 150 a). FSS finds three stages in column 150 a—stages 1 ofcomponents 1, 2 and 4. Component 3 shows a null value in column 150 aindicating that no stage of component 3 can be scheduled at this time.FSS then requests that stages 1 of components 1, 2 and 4 beginexecution. Each stage preferably reports back to FSS upon completion ofthat stage so that FSS will know that the stage has completed. Once thestages in column 150 a have completed, FSS then examines the next column(column 150 b) to determine which stage(s) can be scheduled next. Asshown in column 150 b, stages 2 of components 2 and 4 are listed.Accordingly, FSS requests those stages to be executed. This processrepeats itself for the remaining columns 150 c-150 h until all stages inthe table have been executed.

FSS preferably includes an internal component called “SCM0” that hassome reserved stages (stages whose name FSS recognizes). These stagesare used to block further recovery operation of a service until allservices are blocked. When all recovering services have reached theBLOCKING stage, FSS instructs the services to proceed to completion.This arrangement allows the critical stages of recovery to happen fasterin the Standby CP, thereby improving the recovery time of the switch.

By listing the stage identifiers in the appropriate cells 152 in thestaging table 90, the inter-stage dependency links are implemented. Forexample, as noted above, stage 1 of component 3 is dependent oncomponent 2, stage 2 and component 1, stage 3. As shown in table 90,stage 1 of component 3 is listed in column 150 e. Stage 2 of component 2is shown in column 150 b and stage 3 of component 1 is shown in column150 d, both columns of which precede column 150 e in which stage 1 ofcomponent 3 is listed. Thus, component 3, stage 1 will not be scheduledfor execution by FSS until the stages on which it depends havecompleted. Moreover, column 150 e is the earliest column in which stage1 of component 3 could be listed. Although alternatively it could beincluded in subsequent columns, stage 1 of component 3 preferably islisted in column 150 e to minimize the amount of time needed to performthe recovery process. A similar analysis applies to all otherdependencies enforced in the staging table 90. The staged recoveryprocess described herein permits FSS 112 to efficiently schedule thevarious component stages of the recovery process.

Unique XIDs for each CP

According to their normal operation, CPs 72 send requests of varioustype to switches 52, other CPs, and other entities in the network. Therequests may originate from the CP or from another device in the system(e.g., another CP). In the latter case, the CP receives the request andsends it as required. Some of these requests may result in data or otherinformation being returned to the CP that originated the requests. Thus,when an image, that was previously a standby image, becomes active oneor more requests may still be working their way through the system invarious degrees of completeness. Moreover, the fail-over may haveoccurred after a request was sent out, but before a response wasreturned.

In accordance with another aspect of the preferred embodiment, once astandby image becomes active, the now active image re-issues all pendingrequests originated by the previous active image. For each request thatmight possibly require a restart, the standby image was preferably senta “request start” notification message by the (formerly) active CP,using a synchronous update, and the standby CP would have added therequest to a list of outstanding requests. For each such request thatwas completed, the (formerly) active CP, would have sent a second“request complete” message, at which time the standby image would havedeleted its outstanding request state. When a standby image becomesactive, it simply restarts all outstanding requests for which nocompletion message has been received. With all previously pendingrequests re-issued, multiple responses may be received by the newlyactive CP for the same request. That is, the remote entity that receivesthe original and re-issued requests will respond accordingly and providetwo responses—one resulting from the original request and the otherresulting from the re-issued request. Preferably, however, the newlyactive image uses only the response resulting from the re-issuedrequest; the response associated with the original request is not usedand may be ignored or otherwise trashed by the image.

FIG. 7 depicts this process. In block 170, the newly active imagepreferably retries all requests that are still pending when the previousactive image failed-over to the standby image. In block 172, the newlyactive image receives response data associated with one or more of theoriginal or re-issued requests and in decision block 174 determineswhether the response data is “old” (i.e., pertains to an originalrequest) or “new” (i.e., pertains to a re-issued request). If theresponse data is old, the data is ignored in block 176. Otherwise, newdata is accepted and used, as is described in block 178.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, each CP 72includes a mechanism to be able to determine whether response datapertains to a request that originated from an image on that CP or onanother CP. Referring briefly to FIG. 3, that mechanism includes anexchange identifier (“XID”) set 88. XIDs are used in accordance withconventional Fibre Channel usage to uniquely identify a “transaction”between entities in the network. Each transaction refers to a dataconversation in which requests and responses are passed back and forth.A CP 72 may have multiple transactions on-going at any one point in timeand each transaction is assigned a different XID value to permit the CPto distinguish one transaction from another. The XID range 88 includesat least one XID value, and typically will include a plurality of XIDvalues.

The XID values preferably are unique to each CP meaning that each CP 72has a unique, non-overlapping range of XID values. The XID valuespreferably are assigned by the CP's FSS facility 112. Through the CPs'FSS facilities' ability to communicate with one another, the range ofXID values used by one CP can be conveyed to the other CP to avoidre-use of the same XID range. Alternatively, on initialization, each CP,via HAMs 122, can coordinate with each other to use a different range ofXID value. At any rate, upon a fail-over, the newly active image willuse a different range of XID values than was used by the previous activeimage.

An XID value associated with the CP is included in each request messagethat the CP sends to another entity in the network, and the same XIDvalue is included in the response message that is returned to the CP.Thus, in block 174 a CP's image can determine whether response data isassociated with a request that originated from that CP or from anotherCP by examining the XID value in the response itself.

This technique permits a CP, which issues requests containing XIDs, tobe transitioned from a first state to a second state. The XID(s) used inthe first state are different from the XID(s) used in the second state.The CP may receive a response to an issued request and determine whetherthe response contains an XID pertaining to the first state or the secondstate. If the XID in the response pertains to the first state, the CPignores any data contained in the response. If, however, the responsecontains an XID pertaining to the second state, the CP processes datacontained in the response.

Single CP Firmware Change

Although the system may include multiple CPs 72 for redundancy, thesystem can still operate with only a single CP. A user may desire tochange the firmware executing on the CP for a variety of reasons. Forexample, the current version of firmware may have a defect (i.e., a“bug”). Further, a new and improved version of firmware may be availablethat implements additional and/or improved functionality. For whateverreason, a user may desire to replace the CP's firmware which is storedin non-volatile memory 92. The following description explains apreferred embodiment for firmware replacement in a way that maintainsthe single CP available for operation as much as possible (i.e., “highavailability”).

In a multiple CP system, the new firmware can be brought up as a standbyimage. Then, using the process described above, the active image's stateinformation can be dumped to the active in a synchronization process.Once synchronized, the standby image (which comprises the new firmware)can force a fail-over to then become the new active image. If desire,the previous active image can repeat the above process to replace itselfwith the new firmware. The following description explains a preferredembodiment for replacing firmware in a single CP system using much ofthe functionality described above for replacing firmware in multi-CPsystem.

Referring now to FIG. 8, in conjunction with FIG. 3, a method is shownby which firmware can be changed on a CP in a system for which nostandby image exists. The method shown utilizes much of the logicexplained above and minimizes the amount of down time experienced by theCP during the firmware change over. In block 200, the new firmware(which may comprise one or more of the service components) is stored innon-volatile memory 92 (FIG. 3) which may comprise flash memory, a harddrive or ROM as explained previously. In block 202 a reboot managerutility 99 is launched and is designated as a standby image to thecurrently active image running on the CP. The reboot manager 99 opens amanagement channel to FSS 112 and creates a standby image, pointing atthe active image. A “loopback” transport is created by which stateupdates from the active image are looped back internally to the standbyimage in the same CP.

In block 204, the reboot manager 99 registers itself with FSS 112 as allthe components of the standby image. Then, in block 206, the new standbyimage (an instance of the reboot manager) is synchronized to the currentactive image as was described above. This process thus uses the samebasic logic and code as would be used if the standby image was a truecopy of the active image running on another CP. Thus, the standby rebootmanager image sends a SYNCH_START message to the active image, therebycausing all components of the active image to begin a synchronizationdump. As the state updates begin flowing to the reboot manager 99, themessages are saved in the CP's non-volatile memory (e.g., in a file),rather than being applied to component state as would be done if a truestandby image was running.

When all components of the active image have finished thesynchronization dump, a HALT message is sent to the active image (block208) by FSS upon request from the reboot manager to cause the activeimage to cease all operations. When the halt state has been reached, areboot operation can be performed. A reboot may be necessary to ensureproper operation of the operating system, as would be understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art. As such, in block 210, the CP 72 isrebooted with the newly loaded firmware. Based on information passed tothe new system image on reboot, the new firmware service image comes upas a standby image, pointing to an active image. In block 212, thereboot manager is launched again as an active image with loopbackenabled and registers itself with FSS as all the components of theinstance. Then, in block 214 the standby image (which comprises thenewly loaded firmware) synchronizes to the active image during which allpreviously saved state information is loaded into the components of thestandby image. Finally, in block 216, a fail-over is forced from theactive image to the standby image. This can occur by issuing aTAKE_CONTROL message to the standby image which causes the standby imageto take control of the physical resources, using the saved state as itsinitial state.

In this manner, new firmware can be loaded onto the CP using as much ofthe existing mechanisms designed for multiple CP systems as possible.Further, the firmware change can occur with little down time. In somesituations, a reboot of the CP may not be necessary as would beunderstood by one of ordinary skill in the art. In those situations, thereboot block 210 can be skipped.

As explained herein, a CP's software comes up as a standby image. Thisreduces the complexity of the code.

The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles andvarious embodiments of the present invention. Numerous variations andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once theabove disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the followingclaims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

1. A method of changing from first firmware to second firmware in asingle processor system in which said processor communicates with aplurality of electronic devices, comprising: (a) saving stateinformation pertaining to said first firmware; (b) preventing theprocessor from communicating with the electronic devices; (c) ceasingexecution of the first firmware and rebooting the processor; (d)bringing the second firmware to an active state; and (e) applying thesaved state information to the second firmware.
 2. The method of claim 1further including prior to (d) loading the second firmware into memoryaccessible by said processor.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein (a)includes saving the state information to non-volatile memory.
 4. Themethod of claim 1 wherein following (e) permitting the processor tocommunicate with the electronic devices using the second firmware. 5.The method of claim 1 wherein the electronic devices comprise networkswitches.
 6. A method of changing from first firmware to second firmwarein a single processor system in which said processor communicates with aplurality of electronic devices, comprising: (a) saving stateinformation pertaining to said first firmware; (b) preventing theprocessor from communicating with the electronic devices; (c) ceasingexecution of the first firmware and rebooting the processor; (d)bringing the second firmware to an active state; and (e) synchronizingthe second firmware to the first firmware using the saved stateinformation.
 7. A method of changing from first firmware to secondfirmware in a single processor system in which said processorcommunicates with a plurality of electronic devices, comprising: (a)loading the second firmware onto the system in which the first firmwareis actively running; (b) saving state information pertaining to saidfirst firmware; (c) preventing the processor from communicating with theelectronic devices; (d) ceasing execution of the first firmware andrebooting the processor; (e) bringing the second firmware to an activestate; and (f) synchronizing the second firmware to the first firmwareusing the saved state information.
 8. A system, comprising: a pluralityof electronic devices; and a control processor that executes firmwareand communicates with the electronic devices, said control processorhaving memory; wherein the firmware being executed by said controlprocessor can be changed to new firmware, the change over to the newfirmware occurring by saving state information pertaining to thecurrently executing firmware in said memory, preventing the controlprocessor from communicating with the electronic devices, ceasingexecution of the currently executing firmware, rebooting the controlprocessor, bringing the new firmware to an active state, and applyingthe saved state information to the new firmware.
 9. The system of claim8 wherein the firmware change over also includes loading the newfirmware into said memory.
 10. The system of claim 8 wherein said memorycomprises non-volatile memory.
 11. The system of claim 8 wherein thefirmware change over also includes the control processor againcommunicating with the electronic devices using the new firmware. 12.The system of claim 8 wherein the electronic devices comprise networkswitches.
 13. A control processor coupled to electronic devices,comprising: a CPU; and memory coupled to said CPU and containing CPUexecutable firmware having associated state information; wherein thefirmware being executed by said CPU can be changed to new firmware, thechange over to the new firmware occurring by saving state informationpertaining to the currently executing firmware in said memory,preventing the control processor from communicating with the electronicdevices, ceasing execution of the currently executing firmware,rebooting the control processor, bringing the new firmware to an activestate, and applying the saved state information to the new firmware. 14.The control processor of claim 13 wherein the firmware change over alsoincludes loading the new firmware said memory.
 15. The control processorof claim 13 wherein said memory comprises non-volatile memory.
 16. Thecontrol processor of claim 13 wherein the firmware change over alsoincludes the control processor again communicating with the electronicdevices using the new firmware.
 17. The control processor of claim 13wherein the electronic devices comprise network switches.
 18. A computerreadable storage medium for storing an executable set of softwareinstructions that are executable by a CPU, said software instructionsbeing operable to change firmware in a processor from first firmware tosecond firmware, said processor adapted to communicate with a pluralityof electronic devices, said software instructions comprising: (a) ameans for saving state information pertaining to said first firmware;(b) a means for preventing the processor from communicating with theelectronic devices; (c) a means for ceasing execution of the firstfirmware and a means for rebooting the processor; (d) a means forbringing the second firmware to an active state; and (e) a means forapplying the saved state information to the second firmware.
 19. Thestorage medium of claim 18 further including a means for loading thesecond firmware into memory accessible by said processor prior to themeans in (d) bringing the second firmware to an active state.
 20. Thestorage medium of claim 18 wherein the means in (a) includes a means forsaving the state information to non-volatile memory.
 21. The storagemedium of claim 18 further including a means for permitting theprocessor to communicate with the electronic devices using the secondfirmware following the means in (e) applying the saved state informationto the second firmware.
 22. The storage medium of claim 18 wherein theelectronic devices comprise network switches.
 23. A method of changingfrom first firmware to second firmware in a single processor system inwhich said processor communicates with a plurality of electronicdevices, comprising: (a) launching a utility as a standby image; (b)synchronizing the standby image to an active image in which the firstfirmware is running; (c) preventing the processor from communicatingwith the electronic devices; (d) making the second firmware a standbyimage and rebooting the processor; (e) launching the utility as anactive image; (f) synchronizing the standby image to the active image;and (g) falling over from the active image to the standby image; wherein(b) includes saving state information pertaining to the active image tonon-volatile memory; and wherein (f) includes retrieving stateinformation from the non-volatile memory and applying the retrieyedinformation to the standby image.
 24. The method of claim 23 wherein (a)includes enabling loopback to cause state information update messagesdestined for another processor system to be rerouted and provided to thestandby image.
 25. The method of claim 23 wherein (e) includes enablingloopback to cause state information update messages destined for anotherprocessor system to be rerouted and provided to the standby image. 26.The method of claim 23 further including prior to (d) loading the secondfirmware into memory accessible by said processor.
 27. A system,comprising: a plurality of electronic devices; and a control processorthat executes firmware and a utility and communicates with theelectronic devices, said control processor having memory; wherein thefirmware being executed by said control processor can be changed to newfirmware, the change over to the new firmware occurring by launching theutility as a standby image, synchronizing the standby image to an activeimage in which the currently executing firmware is running, preventingthe control processor from communicating with the electronic devices,making the new firmware a standby image, rebooting the controlprocessor, launching the utility as an active image, synchronizing thestandby image to the active image, and failing over from the activeimage to the standby image; wherein synchronizing the standby imagecontaining the utility to the active image containing the currentlyexecuting firmware to be replaced includes saving state informationpertaining to the active image to non-volatile memory; and whereinsynchronizing the standby image containing the new firmware to theactive image containing the utility includes retrieving stateinformation from the non-volatile memory and applying the retrievedstate information to the standby image.
 28. The system of claim 27wherein launching the utility as a standby image includes enablingloopback to cause state information update messages destined for anotherprocessor system to be rerouted and provided to the standby image. 29.The system of claim 27 wherein launching the utility as an active imageincludes enabling loopback to cause state information update messagesdestined for another processor system to be rerouted and provided to thestandby image.
 30. The system of claim 27 wherein the firmware changeover also includes loading the new firmware into said memory.
 31. Acontrol processor coupled to electronic devices, comprising: a CPU; andmemory coupled to said CPU and containing CPU executable firmware havingassociated state information and a utility; wherein the firmware beingexecuted by said control processor can be changed to new firmware, thechange over to the new firmware occurring by launching the utility as astandby image, synchronizing the standby image to an active image inwhich the currently executing firmware is running, preventing thecontrol processor from communicating with the electronic devices, makingthe new firmware a standby image, rebooting the control processor,launching the utility as an active image, synchronizing the standbyimage to the active image, and failing over from the active image to thestandby image; wherein synchronizing the standby image containing theutility to the active image containing the currently executing firmwareto be replaced includes saving state information pertaining to theactive image to non-volatile memory; and wherein synchronizing thestandby image containing the new firmware to the active image containingthe utility includes retrieving state information from the non-volatilememory and applying the retrieved state information to the standbyimage.
 32. The control processor of claim 31 wherein launching theutility as a standby image includes enabling loopback to cause stateinformation update messages destined for another processor system to bererouted and provided to the standby image.
 33. The control processor ofclaim 31 wherein launching the utility as an active image includesenabling loopback to cause state information update messages destinedfor another processor system to be rerouted and provided to the standbyimage.